On 1 January 2020 the German Music Archive celebrated the 50th anniversary of its foundation. What could be more fitting than to take this opportunity to look back over its history? The last five decades have seen dramatic changes, not only in the music industry but also in listening habits and the expectations that users have of the Archive and the ways in which it can be accessed. All the changes that have occurred since 1970 are reflected in the Archive’s tasks and challenges, sometimes more, sometimes less – and sometimes not until a little while later.

Millions of music resources

In its current form, the German National Library's mandate is to collect, catalogue, archive and provide access to all media works in text, image and sound format published in Germany since 1913. In brief, the German Music Archive is responsible for the musical part of this mandate and collects all the printed and recorded music published in Germany. In order to comply with the legal deposit obligation, two copies of all the above-mentioned media have to be sent to the German Music Archive, one for the site in Leipzig and the other for the site in Frankfurt am Main.

On average, 1,500 recordings and more than 200 sheet music publications are deposited with the German Music Archive every week, and so, half a century after its inception it houses one of the world’s biggest musical collections with one million pieces of printed music and 2.2 million music recordings. The majority of this collection consists of CDs and vinyl records; however, the Archive’s stacks also contain thousands of historic piano rolls, tens of thousands of audio cassettes and hundreds of thousands of shellac records. The most important facet of this unique collection is its objectivity. Unlike commercial streaming services, the German Music Archive does not choose which media to collect on the basis of their popularity or the number of clicks they receive; instead, the guiding principle is completeness. And who can predict which of the music now dismissed as poor or uninteresting will become the subject of public interest in ten, twenty, fifty years?

It began in Berlin

Photo: DNB

Although it was not founded until 1 January 1970, the German Music Archive did not have to start building its collection from scratch. Instead, it was able to take over the music collection amassed by its predecessor, the Deutsche Musik-Phonothek, which between 1961 and 1969 collected printed music and sound recordings in order to make them available for research and teaching purposes. It was only when the German Music Archive was founded in 1970 that the general public was granted access to these holdings, and the collection was systematically expanded from this time on. This initially occurred without the support of the deposit obligation, which did not become law until 1973. From then on, West German publishers of sheet music and sound recordings were legally obliged to send two copies of each publication to the German Music Archive.

In 1978, the German Music Archive moved into the Siemens villa, as the Correns mansion in Berlin-Lankwitz was known; this was a spectacular home where the German Music Archive was to remain for more than 30 years. Here there was now enough space for stacks, offices and a sound studio where the rapidly growing volume of sound records and printed music could be archived, catalogued and later also digitised and where the necessary technology and experts could be accommodated.

Music resources have accordingly been collected in West Germany since 1970. However, the music collection in East Germany goes back even further. The Deutsche Bücherei had been endeavouring to collect sheet music since 1943 and began collecting sound recordings in the 1970s. These collections were then amalgamated in Leipzig when the German Music Archive moved to its new home. The German Music Archive also receives donations and makes purchases of historic sound recordings that date back to 1877 and cover the early decades of the recording industry, its purpose being to provide a comprehensive overview of the variety of repertoire, publishers and materials available.

The market is changing

This look back at the past is quite revealing: the sound recording industry was marked by uncontrolled growth, particularly during the first decades of the 20th century. Material, playback speeds, size, weight – there were hardly any conventions governing the production of records. Labels came and went, and each of them appeared to find its own method of producing sound recordings that fulfilled the demands of that time. These had less to do with listening habits and more with dealing with the adverse conditions that prevailed during the economic crisis, in wartime and after the war.

When the German Music Archive first started fulfilling its collection mandate, the market was dominated by vinyl records and audio cassettes. The major shift from analog to digital sound recordings came in the mid-1980s. Over the last hundred years or more, the music market has seen every physical sound carrier (records made of shellac or vinyl, audio cassettes, mini-discs, CDs etc.) replaced by other sound carriers; however, the paradigm change from physical to non-physical has been the most radical step in the development of the recording industry. Suddenly, music recordings are no longer limited by time constraints, while single tracks can generate many times the income that could formerly be achieved with well-thought-out album concepts. Since distribution by air, road and waterway has declined in importance, the market has become truly global.

All these changes also affect the German Music Archive’s work – although not until some time later. When the CD began to supplant the record, large quantities of newly released vinyl records were still being deposited in the Archive. And although many German labels are finding themselves in dire straits due to the decline in sales of physical sound carriers, the German Music Archive is currently receiving more of them than ever before. This decline relates to distribution figures, i.e. the main source of income from the sound carrier itself, not to the number of music titles in the German Music Archive.

It goes without saying that the German Music Archive adapts to the fluctuating market and the works it releases. By 2017, all the audio CDs in the collection were migrated to preserve them for posterity while ensuring that they could still be made available to users; this meant that the digital musical content of the sound carriers was transferred to the library system and can now be listened to at the German National Library's computers in Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main without losing any of the original sound quality. At the same time, a sound engineer ensures that analog sound carriers such as vinyl and shellac records are also professionally digitised. As there is a large number of these and the basic digitisation work is quite time-consuming, this task is usually performed on demand.

The shift to non-physical media has now raised a number of wholly new questions which the German Music Archive has to address. What does “Published in Germany” mean with reference to online resources? Does the album have a future, or will we soon find that tracks are only being released singly? How is the German Music Archive handling this situation? What will happen to the many individual media in which the music is combined with videos, augmented reality or other content, some of which is interactive?

Loyal support

The German National Library has already found answers to some of these questions, while others are still under discussion – the consequences are often more far-reaching than they initially seem. In this situation, support from the many different areas of the music scene is of inestimable value. The German Music Archives’s advisory committee consists of copyright experts and experts from music libraries, music publishing companies, interest groups, recording companies and radio stations who meet on a regular basis to provide the German Music Archive with advice and support. The direct line to these stakeholders has influenced a number of decisions and opened many doors that would otherwise remain closed.

The contacts which the German Music Archive maintains through international networks such as the associations of music libraries (IAML) and sound archives (IASA) are also important. Despite – or perhaps because of – the often varying basic circumstances of the institutions worldwide, the regular conferences create valuable synergies and enable partnerships to be formed.

Neither is the German Music Archive segregated within the German National Library. Music permeates the whole institution, and there are ubiquitous links with the domains and departments of User Services, Acquisitions, IT, Marketing and Administration. In terms of content, there are overlaps with the German Exile Archive 1933–1945 (Thomas Mann’s record legacy, for example) and the German Museum of Books and Writing (most recently with the joint exhibition “Troublemakers. Art, Protest and the End of the GDR”) which enrich the work of everyone involved.

A home in Leipzig

Photo: PUNCTUM, Alexander Schmidt

The German Music Archive was housed at the Siemens Villa in Berlin for more than 30 years. In 2010, after it was determined that the premises were no longer able to meet the needs of a modern archive, the German Music Archive found a new home at the German National Library's site in Leipzig. The plans for the fourth annex were modified accordingly and on 1 December 2010, the German Music Archive was consequently able to slip into a bespoke suit.

The German National Library’s modern stacks provide ideal climatic conditions for the archiving of printed music, CDs, shellac and vinyl records, piano rolls and wax cylinders. The fully-glazed music reading room with 18 spacious workstations provides enough space not only to study musical literature but also to listen to more than 500,000 hours of digitised music through headphones. Moreover, four of the workstations have keyboards which users can pull out to play – also using headphones – the piano scores that they have ordered.

If this is not enough, users can go into the soundproofed audio booth to listen to the German Music Archive’s music as loudly or quietly as they want using a multi-channel system and without the need for headphones; alternatively, they can select works from among the million items of sheet music and play them on a digital grand piano.

It is a matter of principle for the German Music Archive to have the right playback device for every medium in the collection. The music exhibition “From Edison Cylinder to Blu-Ray” was set up in the public area of the German Music Archive in order to showcase them; this exhibition gives impressive insights into the wealth and diversity of the sound carriers and playback systems and how they have changed over the decades.

Photo: PUNCTUM, Alexander Schmidt

At the same time, the exhibition area is a wonderful setting for small-scale concerts and readings. After all, the most important thing about music is to make it. The German Music Archive therefore gladly opens its doors for musical events which link with the topics that affect the whole institution. These can take place in the music reading room, the audio booth and the music exhibition, but the best place is the lecture room.

Bringing music to life in the German Music Archive

The lecture hall is not just intended for conferences and readings but also houses a self-playing reproducing piano that dates from 1925. This grand piano can be experienced in action twice a year during the concert series “The Invisible Pianist”, in which historic piano rolls selected from the German Music Archive's collection are played during a lecture-concert. However, the German Music Archive's other rooms are also ideal for music and dance events, which are made special by the peculiarities of the building itself.

Photo: PUNCTUM, Alexander Schmidt

In 2014, dancers from the Leipzig Ballet, the Leipzig Opera’s ballet company, transformed the German Music Archive into a backdrop in front of which it interpreted sounds, acoustic worlds and atmospheres between historic playback devices and a modern audio booth. The event “Tanz in den Häusern der Stadt” (Cityscape Dances) attracted a large public which very much enjoyed experiencing the in some cases little-known rooms from this wholly unique perspective.
A similar concept was followed by the “Notenspur Nacht der Hausmusik (Notenspur Night of Music-Making at Home) organised by the initiative Leipziger Notenspur e.V. Here too, the idea is to present musicians in unusual locations – an idea from which everyone involved can benefit. For the last five winters, small and medium-sized ensembles have been meeting in private apartments, residential communities, offices and public buildings to perform a wide variety of music to an invited public. The German Music Archive supported this lovely tradition right from the start and has thus had the opportunity to enjoy music by swing ensembles, big bands and Nordic folk groups; these events also attract a public that has never before seen the German Music Archive from the inside.

One event that was equally remarkable in every respect took place in 2019, when Bauhaus expert and free jazz pianist Oliver Schwerdt met drummer and free jazz legend Günter “Baby” Sommer from Dresden to thrash out the parallels between architectural ideals and free improvised music as part of the Bauhaus anniversary celebrations. The event was meticulously planned, but the music was wild and free – and in this form something completely new for the hundred-year-old walls of the German National Library.

No party, but many celebrations

Rather than marking the 50th anniversary of the German Music Archive with a major celebration, all the musical events held on its premises were to be labelled “50 Years of German Music Archive”. However, since plans for numerous in-person presentations, conferences and concerts had to be abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it became necessary to find suitable virtual formats. Particular attention was paid to the virtual round table discussion “Beethoven 2020/2030: Music in the Digital Present and Future” in the summer and to the concert given by the band Ysilia, which was livestreamed from the German Music Archives lecture room. A lecture recital by the “invisible pianist” was able to take place on our premises with proper attention to hygiene and social distancing since it fell between lockdown phases.

These are some of the many spheres of activity that make the work carried out by and for the German Music Archive so varied and exciting. : everything is in flux – tasks change and new solutions are constantly being developed. The networks are growing and are constant sources of new input and highly interesting opportunities for cooperation. And everything at the German Music Archive will continue to revolve around music, whether in the form of sound carriers, in binary code, or live on its many platforms. To the next 50 years!